Welcome to our book review site www.go-pdf.online!
You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Democracy, Bonapartism and Fascism: Class Struggle in the 1930s
“In a word, if in the pacific and ‘organic’ period (before the war) one could still live on the revenue from a few ready-made abstractions, in our time each new event forcefully brings home the most important law of the dialectic: The truth is always concrete.” — Trotsky The inter-war years were a time of deep crisis, class struggle and revolutionary opportunities. The economic crisis produced a crisis of democracy itself. The ruling class, with nothing to offer, ran out of means to keep the workers at bay. As Trotsky explained, under the intensity of the class struggle and international conflict, “the fuses of democracy blow out”. What followed was a succession of Bonapartist ...
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
"Since civilisation is founded on the exploitation of one class by another class, its whole development proceeds in a constant contradiction. Every step forward in production is at the same time a step backward in the position of the oppressed class, that is, of the great majority." First published in 1884, The Origin of the Family is one of the most important works of Marxist theory. Basing himself on the research of anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan, Friedrich Engels builds on his revolutionary discovery that the family structure has passed through multiple stages throughout history. He shows that, ultimately, the determining factor in these changes is the economic mode of production. Usin...
Women, Family and the Russian Revolution
The Bolsheviks came to power in a workers’ and peasants’ revolution supported by the great majority of Russian women. Abortion was legalized immediately and made available to women without charge. For the first time wives were empowered to divorce their husbands, and many took the opportunity. In a society in which few homes had any basic amenities, it was envisaged that women would be freed from household drudgery by child-care centres, communal dining halls, and public laundries; and the predictions of Engels that mutual affection and respect would underpin relations between the sexes would be realised. Under socialism the bourgeois family would wither away, releasing women from kitche...
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
Written immediately after the fall of the Second French Republic in 1851, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte offers a cutting analysis of the French Revolution of 1848, the short life of the republic it brought into being, and the events which led to its demise at the hands of the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. In his treatment of the dizzying swirl of individuals, parties and ideological trends which burst to the fore in this period, Marx places each in their class context, and draws out the powerful currents of revolution and counter-revolution under the surface of events. As a work of history, it surpasses all contemporary writers and stands a triumphant demonstration of Marx’s historical materialist method. But it is even more valuable today as a work of theory. The full scope of the modern class struggle, the nature of the state, the limitations of reformism, the role of the individual and the theory of permanent revolution can all be found in its pages. For this reason, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte must be considered a work of genius and a true classic of Marxist theory. This Wellred edition features a new introduction.
The Revolutionary Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg
This book sets out to examine Rosa Luxemburg’s ideas, not from the distorted myths about her political ideas, or solely about personal questions such as her love life, but from Luxemburg’s very own writings. It is an attempt to provide an insight into the treasure trove of ideas and revolutionary theory that Luxemburg’s works constitute. The book shows that the real Rosa Luxemburg is often very far from the myths and rumours that surround her: Rosa Luxemburg was, is and remains a revolutionary.
‘Left-Wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder
The Bolsheviks led the workers to power in the October Revolution of 1917. To ensure its survival, they grappled with the task of spreading the revolution beyond Russia. ‘Left-Wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder was written in 1920 to educate the newly-formed communist parties of the Third International, and to correct the ultra-left, sectarian trends that infected many of them. Inspired by the Revolution and repelled by the betrayals of social democracy, these communists had not absorbed the real lessons of Bolshevism. The majority of workers still looked to reformist parties, and needed to be won away from the influence of reformist leaders in these. The task was to win them over to the banner of revolutionary communism. In this text, Lenin explains the methods and skilful tactics of the Bolshevik Party, which enabled them to win over a majority of the workers to their programme. Without this strategic brilliance, there would have been no October Revolution. Any serious revolutionary communist today must study, absorb and apply Lenin’s methods on these vital questions of revolutionary strategy and tactics.
On Imperialist War
This volume is a collection of Lenin’s writings on the crucial question of the position of revolutionary Marxists towards war and, more specifically, in relation to the First World War. When the war broke out in 1914, the Socialist International betrayed its own anti-war resolutions and gave wholehearted support to the imperialist slaughter. Lenin started a battle, against the stream, to defend the working-class principles of internationalism, explaining that the war was an imperialist one and therefore the main enemy of the workers was at home. War eventually gave way to revolution and ultimately to the foundation of a new, Communist International. Lenin’s writings on the struggle against the imperialist war are a vital resource for revolutionary activists today. This is the first of a series of thematic collections of Lenin’s writings by Wellred Books, published to mark the centenary of his death in 2024.
On the National Question
Tsarist Russia was a “prison house of nations”. A majority of the population belonged to national groups oppressed by the tsarist regime, which suppressed their languages, their religions and their cultures. The national question was therefore crucial from the point of view of the workers’ movement. It could only be solved with a revolutionary programme. This was a complex question which required firmness in principle and extraordinary flexibility in tactics in combining two different aspects: the unity of the working class in one party cutting across national barriers in the common struggle against autocracy, and the defence of right of nations of to self-determination, including thei...
Spain’s revolution against Franco: The great betrayal
The story of the Spanish revolution of the 1930s is quite well known to most people on the left, but there is a surprising level of ignorance concerning the events that occurred subsequently. History did not cease with the victory of Franco in 1939. And the story of how the Franco dictatorship was eventually brought down by the revolutionary movement of the Spanish workers is an inspiring one. Under the most difficult and dangerous conditions, Spanish workers launched a strike wave, which, in its intensity and duration, has no parallel anywhere. There was nothing remotely like this in Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy or Salazar’s Portugal. This was a genuine revolution, which could ...
